After some serious deliberation, I have decided to totally give up the analog side of things ... :-?

Living with a very decent phono front end for several months has convinced me of a couple of things .....

1 - Analog sounds really, really good.

2 - Despite point #1, my listening habits simply do not drive me to make the effort needed to enjoy what analog has to offer.

Over the past few months, I have probably not spun vinyl 10 times ..... while I have spent two or more hours almost every day listening to CDs. While I'm sure that this is perplexing indeed to my vinyl loving brethren ...... it's the honest to goodness truth.

I like to program the tracks and hate getting up every 20 minutes. I hate surface noise in any quantity and sit there with my teeth clenched wondering which song is the last one on an LP that I'm not too familiar with ..... :P

It may not make much sense to some ..... but, it is what it is.

So ..... I am listing my ZP3 in the Audio Classifieds.

The price is very attractive, considering the neat parts that went into this beauty. Here are some photos of the stock ZP3 and the one I have :

Lovers of vinyl will certainly appreciate this fine piece of equipment and I will apply the money to one of Steve's new ZCD players ..... :)

After some serious deliberation, I have decided to totally give up the analog side of things ... :-?

Living with a very decent phono front end for several months has convinced me of a couple of things .....

1 - Analog sounds really, really good.

2 - Despite point #1, my listening habits simply do not drive me to make the effort needed to enjoy what analog has to offer.

Over the past few months, I have probably not spun vinyl 10 times ..... while I have spent two or more hours almost every day listening to CDs. While I'm sure that this is perplexing indeed to my vinyl loving brethren ...... it's the honest to goodness truth.

I like to program the tracks and hate getting up every 20 minutes. I hate surface noise in any quantity and sit there with my teeth clenched wondering which song is the last one on an LP that I'm not too familiar with ..... :P

It may not make much sense to some ..... but, it is what it is.

Randy

Randy,I reached that identical conclusion about 4 years ago. I too love the sound and allure of vinyl, but the time, cost, & delicacy & detail of care required to set-up and maintain a first-rate vinyl rig absolutely reached that point of diminishing returns for me. The "betterment" of the analog audio experience turned into a "detriment" in the pure enjoyment factor of music for me.

I (as I'm sure you are) a pretty hard-working/busy guy. Losing what are sometimes precious few listening hours to the "care and feeding" of LPs & Turntables simply does not work for me.

I have an extremely satisfying tube output digital front-end that has been pretty extremely modified to the point where I never find myself pining to have vinyl for more than a passing moment. I am in a good and happy audio place, with no regrets. Insert disc, press play…. Drool.

That said, I have great admiration for those vinylfiles that keep the format going. I appreciate it in the way I do a person that has any hobby that requires meticulous attention to detail to get it “right”

It sounds like we have traveled a lot of the same "audio road" ..... 8-)

While I readily admit that there are some things that vinyl does better than digital at any price (specifically cymbals and violins/fiddles), I have gotten close enough to be quite content with digital in my system.

I have owned the very fine Zanden 5000 MK IV DAC and it has given me a pretty good reference to figure out what my "point of diminishing returns" DAC should be. The Camelot Uther / Anagram unit is very close for a lot less money. Very different, but still excellent.

The little Channel Islands Audio DAC is surprisingly good for the money.I recently heard a Hagerman Chime that was very impressive. Unfortunately, I didn't hear it in my system ..... which I hope to do soon.I also want to give the new Decware player a serious listen.

I plan to compare all of the above (using my CEC transport and Digital Lens where applicable) over a period of several days.When the smoke clears, I will keep the player or combo that floats my boat and settle in to collecting little silver disks ..... :)

I dare say that there are a few others who share our view of this ..... ;)

My eyebrow (only one) raised a bit when I came across your post -as you might imagine. But, I am not surprised nor disappointed. The reasoning is MORE than valid. I see your only asking 895.00 for it. If you want you're welcome to send it to me in exchange for a ZCD that I will add an IEC connector to and include one of our excellent power cords with - even up. Knowing how high a priority you place on imaging and sound stage, I'm willing to bet you choose the ZCD. Of course I will still give you a 30 day trial because 30 days is an absolute requirement to hear a player fully burned in. All I ask is that you accumulate some excellent NOS 12AU7's to roll through it during your trial. Granted, you can only take the red book format so far, especially when it's not up sampled to 96/24 or 192/24 and so on. However, when you take all the other things that make music instead of sound come out of a unit, the ZCD just gets it so right that the higher sampling rates, lenses, clocks., etc., really don't mean much from a percentage point of view.

2 - Despite point #1, my listening habits simply do not drive me to make the effort needed to enjoy what analog has to offer.

Over the past few months, I have probably not spun vinyl 10 times ..... while I have spent two or more hours almost every day listening to CDs. While I'm sure that this is perplexing indeed to my vinyl loving brethren ...... it's the honest to goodness truth.

Randy

i couldnt agree more, i listen to music mostly in my van but also while im working in various very different locations.

which is why i built myself a 'boombox' using a sonic impact class t amp and fostex fe167e speakers ipod source.

My eyebrow (only one) raised a bit when I came across your post -as you might imagine. But, I am not surprised nor disappointed. The reasoning is MORE than valid. I see your only asking 895.00 for it. If you want you're welcome to send it to me in exchange for a ZCD that I will add an IEC connector to and include one of our excellent power cords with - even up. Knowing how high a priority you place on imaging and sound stage, I'm willing to bet you choose the ZCD. Of course I will still give you a 30 day trial because 30 days is an absolute requirement to hear a player fully burned in. All I ask is that you accumulate some excellent NOS 12AU7's to roll through it during your trial. Granted, you can only take the red book format so far, especially when it's not up sampled to 96/24 or 192/24 and so on. However, when you take all the other things that make music instead of sound come out of a unit, the ZCD just gets it so right that the higher sampling rates, lenses, clocks., etc., really don't mean much from a percentage point of view.

Steve

Howdy Steve,

I will take you up on your more than generous offer ..... :)

The only thing I don't understand is why someone did not snap the ZP3+ up 15 minutes after I listed it ..... :-/

It's seems that not too many folks really understood what was being offered. Truthfully, one of the reasons that I did not play many LPs over the past couple of months is that the ZP3 made them sound so good that I was afraid that I might have second thoughts about selling the vinyl rig.

My reasons for wanting to stay with digital exclusively are sincere ..... my taste in music demands that I be able to program tracks ..... and I get into such a state of "deep relaxation" with some of the music that I "came to" a couple of times in utter horror while I still owned the Music Hall turntable not knowing how long the stylus had been tracking the end grooves of an LP. My wife calls this state "sleep" ..... but I assured her that I was simply in another place listening to the music ..... ;D

60; wouldn't it be great if you could stack a number of records on there all at once; now, wouldn't it?

Well, guess what...they used to make them just like that...called a *changer.* They'd play 45's and 78's, as well. You NEEDED a changer for 78's, especially if you were listening to the Ring cycle or perhaps Parcifal.

As kids we had a "Webcor" changer, which was a superb unit not only for Wagner operas, but also good for an afternoon's worth of doowop 45's. They just don't make em like they used to.